Thor's Running Journal

  It's rest day in Smith's Grove Kentucky today that means I get to put my feet up for the day and take it easy. I don't mind rest days at all especially when it's 89° out at 7:23 in the morning.  The interesting thing about running on vacation in Smiths Grove Kentucky is that it's only about 4 Miles in circumference. There's not a whole lot of road to choose from and it's hard to get lost. For my speed work yesterday I did a two mile warm-up one way down a country road and then turned around and started the speed workout intervals. I planned on going down the same road on the other side of Main Street but when I saw the hills I decided to chicken out and duck into the neighborhoods. I find neighborhoods far more interesting than country roads. Don't get me wrong I love the scenery that comes with an open field, the sunrise, crops blowing in the wind, the old abandoned silos, the view of the sky in the clouds, but I find neighborhoods I've never be...

  Vacation running is full of fits and starts as I work to navigate directions through neighborhoods and city paths. Even after plotting out a course, I find myself double checking my headings to make sure I dont miss a right turn or go on a slight left rather than a full left. Its not themost productive run ing, but in the end I get the miles in and typically the run is far more interesting than running at home because of the novelty of my surroundings. I did a 10 mike long run and 6 mile easy effort run on Indianapolis. The long run gave me the opportunity to explore a fair amount of territory including a long greenway path along the river and downtown. The 6 mile went down path that had been converted from a train rail before tracing theough some residential spaces. Im sure neither run gave me a full flavor of the city, but i felt satisfied to have some of the visions I did. One of the most interesting little bits of my run along the rail path included a row of homes with the fr...

Nearly all, I would say 99%, of my runs are in the morning. They are the first thing I do in the morning after stepping out of bed. Some mornings are earlier than others, but it is my run time. Usually even before eating breakfast or having coffee. I don't have time to convince myself that I can do it later because I know that is the formula for not doing it at all.  Once the day gets going, unless there is a plan the day ahead, an unscheduled afternoon or evening run isn't realistic.  I don't always like that it works this way.  There are times where I want to blow of some steam at the end of the day with a run. Part of it is related to how easy running is compared with thinking and problem solving. One foot placed in front of the other over and over and over again. Sure, I'll need to decide a route or how far to go, but those are just blips. Obviously the stress can follow, but there's nothing quite like running to create enough a distraction to open a space for r...

A later start than usual because I dropped Pascal off to go to a conference this weekend. A bit of cool air set in and it was a welcome relief from the blistering heat of the past several weeks. It is amazing the difference 10 degrees can make. And some sunshine at the same time. I ended up going faster at the same effort. It made me more optimistic about how this training cycle will go. I'll be adding some speed and tempo work next week. We'll be going on vacation next week so we'll see how that ends up. Lots of fits and starts this training block, but I'm not to worried about as long as I can keep sneakingin some workouts. Things will settle by the middle of next month and then with the kids starting school schedules become a bit more ridged. As much as I enjoy the leisure of summer break, a more regular routine will certainly help with getting workouts done.  Getting a later start to my run this morning also meant more people were out and about. This included a woman...

When I stepped out of bed after a night's sleep on Mackinaw Island I nearly tripped into the wall because I still felt some of the sensation I was on a sailboat. This is pretty reasonable considering the previous few days. I arrived on the island after sailing for 44 hours from Port Huron in the Bayview Mackinac Race. I'd been in motion for nearly two full days. So when the ground didn't go anywhere when I stepped down for my morning run my body need a second to reorient and adjust. The perimeter of Mackinaw Island is 8.2 miles and I aimed to run the whole thing. As a kid and even as an adult, I'd ride my bike around the Island, but this visit is the first time I came as a runner. I aimed to get going pretty quickly because the sunrise would be happening in about 15 minutes. I didn't want to miss that. Even after being out in the elements as much as I had been; seeing the sunrise and set the past few days on the boat, I craved seeing the beauty of the sunrise over L...

I set out to take 2nd in my age group at the Volksläufe 10k race on the 4th of July. In an ironic twist, I lost that position by 4 seconds.  I saw the guy pass me. I probably could have found 4 seconds somewhere earlier in the race, but with .5 miles left to go I didn't have the gas left in the tank to get the legs up to speed. But how can I complain with a 42:10 finish. Just shy of 2 minutes faster than my time last year and a personal best. Plus, it was fun to push myself a bit, but not have as much on the line as I do when running a marathon.  Speaking of marathons, I am officially signed up for the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon November 7. That means technically training started this week, but with a 3 day sailing trip on the horizon, I won't really start with any seriousness until next week. Doesn't make sense to go hard and then get sea legs and need to start all over. My 10k race time felt super encouraging because it puts me in good standing to hit my 3:15 marath...

 This week I'm laying off the mileage a bit to get ready for a 10k race. It made it an ideal time to do a 1 mile time trial. When I was a kid I ran a mile for what at that time was called the Presidential Physical Fitness award. I don't remember my time, but I think it might be the last time I ran a mile flat out.  Even at 4:30am it was a hot summer day. I warmed up by running to the local high school. Then calibrated my watch by running twice around the track.  And go. I didn't exactly know how fast I could go which made pacing a little bit of a mystery, but I knew how fast I could go during interval training so I figured it must be a little under that.  lap 1. I felt ok, but started to question if I went out to hot lap 2. Sorta settled into a pace. I didn't know the exact pace because I was too busy just breathing lap 3. oof. two more of these things? lap 4. Ok. I can do anything for 2 minutes When I stopped my watch and saw 6min flat I figured that must be pretty ...